Leeds United's Gaetano Berardi doesn't find a teammate as he looks to spark an attack for the home side. Instead, he finds Cardiff City centre-back Sol Bamba. By the time Leeds get the ball back, they are a goal down.

The date is 3 February, and the Bluebirds are away at Elland Road. They're 4th in the league, six points astray of second-placed Derby, paying the price for four straight defeats over Christmas.

The game's only eight minutes old when Bamba takes the ball out of defence with one thing on his mind. A counter-attack.

He feeds Junior Hoilett with a no-frills pass and the winger does well to turn his man before running directly at the retreating Leeds defence. The Cardiff City juggernaut is starting to move up the gears as the Canadian winger cuts infield, looking to create something in this brief window of opportunity as teammates flood forward and Leeds are vulnerable.

A one-two with Yanic Wildschut gets him to the by-line and he earns Cardiff a corner mere seconds after they were bracing themselves for a Leeds attack.

The delivery from Joe Ralls is decent, but Leeds should be able to clear their lines once the initial header is blocked. However, Cardiff have other ideas.

Armand Traore and Bamba press high to win the ball back inside the Leeds box. Bamba then feeds Traore, who picks out a looping cross to the backpost.

It's unsighted, but the left-back surely has a good idea who will be on the receiving end. Callum Paterson.

Again, Leeds should have it covered but the Scot rises above his man to head home and give Cardiff the lead at Elland Road. They would score four that day.

From defence to attack in a flash, with equal parts skill, power and determination. The archetypal Cardiff goal.

Granted, there have been more important goals, undoubtedly, in Cardiff's unlikely Premier League promotion.

But few come as close to combining all the key facets that makes this team so special.

The key facets that make up The Warnock Way.

'Total Defence'

Let's start at the back. Cardiff appear fairly orthodox on paper, almost always lining up as a back four.

But when other teams are in possession, that four switches to a more dynamic three. Think of it as Warnock's tribute to the Dutch's 'Total Football' — where players were free to move around the pitch in a fluid system.

Limit that fluidity to just one or two key defenders and you have Warnock's disciplined 'Total Defence'.

How that works is either centre-back Sol Bamba or left-back Joe Bennett steps out into midfield, with the other joining captain Sean Morrison and either Lee Peltier or Bruno Ecuele Manga in the back-three.

Occasionally both full-backs move into midfield — with Manga, Bamba and Morrison making up the back-three.

It's all about giving certain individuals — usually the full-backs or a sole centre-back — freedom to roam.

What Pep Guardiola tried to bring to Manchester City's attacking game last season, where full-backs would move into midfield with the ball, Warnock has done to Cardiff's defence.

The idea is to close down threats and win the ball back as quickly as possible, regardless of what interesting shapes that stretches their defence into.

Warnock's assistant Kevin Blackwell admits the system is unorthodox, but swears by the efficiency of it.

"What people have failed to notice is that tactically we nullified our opposition," he said. "Time and time again.

"We used our full backs coming in narrow and you won't see that in the training manual.

"But if that's the answer in professional football, that's what you've got to do. Nine times out of 10 myself and Ronnie were able to come up with the answers."

Against Leeds, Armand Traore, playing left-back instead of the suspended Bennett, goes man-to-man against Ezgjan Alioski — stepping into midfield to press the midfielder.

Manga begins to shift inside to a central position, with Marko Grujic slotting in to cover as an auxiliary right back.

Yanic Wildschut is facing up to Pablo Hernandez — who is currently on the ball.

Bruno Manga pushes in as Armand Traore steps out of defence to press in midfield. Cardiff's wingers revert to wing-back to give the defence solidity

Hernandez's ball is blocked initially, with the rebound coming to Alioski. Traore is still tight to the winger, but the Leeds player is able to get his pass away.

Wildschut switches off and fails to track the run of Hernandez but Cardiff still have a back-three sitting deep to cover.

With Traore pressing in midfield, it is then up to the other midfielders to track runs into the box

The winger gets the ball in and Leeds are unfortunate not to score, with the initial header hitting the bar.

Cardiff's midfield fail to track the runs — with Ralls, Grujic and Wildschut all switching off.

That allows Leeds to get a second shot off.

Cardiff now have three centre-backs to deal with balls into the box, while the midfield is loaded ready for a counter-attack

The system requires complete dedication — with all of the team having to buy into it, otherwise you have chaos. The responsibility is all on the midfielders to track their runners dutifully.

It does allow some freedom for one or two key players, but the rest have to track their man and stay tight.

At Elland Road the midfield switched off for a second — failing to track runs — and that allowed Leeds' midfield to flood the box and create scoring opportunities.

As Blackwell explains: "You can't come in with a philosophy that doesn't suit the players. Philosophies have to be tailored around the players you have, otherwise you're knackered.

"We had the best defensive record so teams obviously didn't work us out."

So how do Warnock, Blackwell and Jepsen ensure this system is working at its full potential?

Simple. Lots of fitness work and training at nothing less than full throttle every time.

"We train at 100 per cent, I don't know any other way. Because what we don't won't is players get to a game and they're not up to match speed"

When the Cardiff defence has faltered, it has been against teams that have managed to isolate the defence from the midfield — which then creates chaos in the fluid back-four who are pulled apart.

The teams that have managed that have typically played quick, short passes with lots of movement — as Leeds did above. Fulham also did it at Cardiff City Stadium on Boxing Day, Wolves in the Welsh capital too.

Even when the fluid Cardiff defence has managed to win the ball back, there have still been some problems.

When Preston blew their unbeaten start to the season to smithereens in a 3-0 win at Deepdale, the 'total defence' looked a mess at times.

Again, it is the left-back, this time Bennett, who pushes up to close down the space and rush Preston's attackers.

Against Preston, Joe Bennett pushes out of defence to shut down the attack early

Bennett is actually turned but it means little, with Cardiff's back-three ready to deal with just one forward runner from the hosts.

With Bennett pushing up, Bamba moves across to cover the space vacated by the full-back, ultimately intercepting the pass.

Even though Bennett is turned by the attacker, the back-three have things covered and a speculative through ball is the only option

With Bamba now on the ball, Cardiff's '3-1' formation in defence is as clear as ever.

But Bamba is put under pressure and this time ponders on the ball, gifting Preston possession back.

Bamba easily cuts this out, but takes his time on the ball and is dispossessed

With Bennett out of position to press, there is no one on the left to cover Bamba's error on the left side of defence and Preston can build a stronger attack in the second 'phase'.

Suddenly there is space behind the Cardiff backline to exploit as Preston bomb forward

As you can see, it isn't a defence built to hold onto the ball once they've won it back — that was the problem against Preston with Bamba being caught in possession.

As such, their defenders rarely hold on to the ball any longer than they need to.

Just look at the passing statistics by Cardiff's defenders between this season and last.

Apart from Bamba, all of Cardiff's defenders are passing less per game than they did last season.

In particular, Morrison and Peltier's total passing numbers have dropped dramatically. The reason being that these particular players are the two who sit back in defence — allowing Bamba or Bennett to press further upfield.

Bamba steps up more than most and is probably the most comfortable on the ball, which is why his passing numbers have actually gone up.

The philosophy is simple.

Win it as quickly as you can. Move it on even quicker.

Hard and fast

Once Cardiff have won the ball back, the aim for Warnock is to move it downfield as quickly as possibly. That sounds awfully like long ball, and to an extent it is.

But it's slightly more sophisticated than just hit and hope. It's about creating small windows of opportunity for their key players by hard work and graft.

Warnock knows he has three game-changers in the final third. Junior Hoilett, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Kenneth Zohore.

The idea is to give the trio as much time against a disorganised, retreating defence as possible. So rather than aimless balls upfield, it's getting the ball into the feet of those danger men and letting them cause havoc in the channels.

When it comes to passing stats, Cardiff sit bottom of the Championship table in many columns.

Passes attempted, passes completed, possession. They sit at the wrong end of the table when it comes to those statistics.

Cardiff are happy not to make many passes, or even hold on to the ball for that long.

They just want to get it and use it effeciently.

This is indicated by their direct speed ranking — which is how quickly a side moves the ball up the pitch.

Direct speed (how quickly teams move the ball up the pitch) and passes per sequence

Cardiff City

Wolves

Fulham

Aston Villa

Direct speed

(metres/second)

2.17 (1st)

1.53 (15th)

1.47 (21st)

1.50 (19th)

Passes per sequence

1.82 (24th)

3.70 (2nd)

3.81 (1st)

2.89 (9th)

Statistics courtesy of Opta. Correct as of 06/04/2018.

Again, in isolation, it looks like long ball. No team gets the ball further forward in a shorter amount of time than the Bluebirds.

But it's all about identifying opportunities and striking when they arise.

Take Joe Ralls' goal against Sunderland for example, an incisive counter-attack and one in the eye for anyone who dare to dub this Cardiff team simply 'long ball merchants'.

It comes from an attack from the visitors, Manga hoisting clear a ball which is collected by Hoilett, who turns to race down the left.

As the ball breaks clear, Zohore (furthest Cardiff player up the pitch) collects in the channel

This is where Cardiff have used Zohore's pace and ability to work the channels. The Dane likes to drop into the inside left corridor, as he did against Sunderland after controlling Hoilett's vertical pass and muscling beyond Jake Clarke-Salter.

Cardiff have six players busting a gut to get forward as Zohore takes it down the left

It's all well and good relying on Zohore's lethal combination of pace and power, but when he picks his head up, he needs support too.

There are plenty of blue shirts flooding forward but it's Ralls who wins the race to latch onto Zohore's square ball, sweeping home a clinical finish to cap a razor sharp Cardiff break.

Having had five players behind the ball (in first picture) Sunderland are now struggling to keep pace with Zohore and Ralls, who is sprinting to latch onto the cross and score

How the Ralls goal against Sunderland looked from an aerial perspective. Direct football? Yes, but also pure desire and clinical execution of a gameplan

It takes just just 12.9 seconds for the ball to go from Manga at the back to reach Sunderland's net, Cardiff moving at a serious pace thanks to the work of fitness coach Carl Serrant.

The 42-year-old is known and respected by Warnock after working at his former clubs Crystal Palace and Sheffield United.

Together they have ensured Cardiff's training work has been staggered, heavily slanted towards doing the hard yards in pre-season and then enjoying plenty of rest days throughout the season. Towards the end of the campaign, the Bluebirds were resting as much as possible.

Blackwell reveals that the Cardiff's coaching staff's years of experience also help them know when to ease off and when to crack the whip.

"Neil will use his eyes and we sometimes have the sports science guys come in and say 'he's run this far...' - good, but sometimes we will think he can go faster and further.

"We like using the stats and the science, but also we use our 25 to 30 years experience. I can tell if a player is tired."

That combination means that on a match day, unlike some other teams, the Bluebirds are not burned out or over-worked.

Instead, they are working towards their full potential, which means they can produce their explosive best to score goals like this.

Playing football in the right areas

One of the biggest criticisms of Cardiff this season is that they are 'anti-football'. A 'physical', 'long ball team' stealing a promotion place from a side playing attractive football — namely Fulham.

Bristol City's Lee Johnson was one of many critics after a 1-0 defeat in February.

"The way Cardiff play, it's a game of disruption.

"It's like chalk and cheese between Cardiff and Fulham. It was a horrible game today, but we do tend to play better against footballing sides."

The implication was clear.

Warnock's response?

“I once went to an interview at Norwich and they asked if their fans would accept the ‘Warnock Way’? I said what do you mean, winning? I don’t understand what the ‘Warnock Way’ is, me.

“So if I get criticised for wanting to entertain and enjoy chances and crosses and shots then fire away, yeah, yeah, that’s the Warnock Way — you’ll get plenty of that.”

As the Yorkshireman says, when Cardiff get the ball into the final third, they have shown plenty of variation and are willing to play attractive football, which is always attacking.

Zohore's second goal at home to Leeds, back in September showcases the Bluebirds' swashbuckling football at its very best.

As has so often been the case, the nucleus is Hoilett, cutting in from his left wing channel.

The run of Craig Bryson pulls defenders away - opening up space for Junior Hoilett

Craig Bryson's run drags a Leeds player out of position creating the opening for Hoilett to gallop infield and exchange passes with Zohore.

With there now space centrally, Hoilett can begin to unlock the Leeds defence with a series of one-twos

Hoilett's first one-two draws Zohore's marker out of position, while Loic Damour breaks free of the Leeds midfielder who should be marshaling him.

Hoilett's one-two with Kenneth Zohore drags one Leeds defender out of position, while Loic Damour has already lost his marker

Hoilett then plays a second give-and-go with Damour, continuing his dangerous diagonal run across the pitch as Leeds defender are caught on their heels.

Suddenly, there are three Cardiff players all being marked by one Leeds defender. He takes a risk and bites onto Damour as he receives Hoilett's pass, only for the Frenchman to return it immediately - taking him out of the game.

As Hoilett plays a one-two with Damour, there are now three Cardiff players being marked by one Leeds defender

That leaves Hoilett with a pass to an unmarked team-mate in the area.

As with the penultimate game of the season at Hull it is Morrison — of all people — who pops up at the back post.

As the centre-back receives the ball in an advanced position, the Leeds defence, which has been dragged about by Hoilett's pass-and-move football, rushes across as one to overcompensate.

Morrison manages to find him and the striker has little work to do to finish off a lovely passing move.

Zohore times his run to put the finishing touch on some wonderful passing football

When you look at the goal from a birds-eye view, you see the movement of the Cardiff players. Any criticism of Cardiff's ability in the final third should be put to bed when you see the one-touch football played — using the most simple tool in football, triangles, to tremendous effect.

Cardiff's fluid approach to attacking often gives centre-backs the licence to get forward. That means that the full-backs have to stay disciplined and hold their position rather than push forward.

With Cardiff able to flood the central areas with defenders and midfielders pushing forward, it allows Hoilett and Mendez-Laing to act as playmakers from out wide — either getting to the byline to deliver crosses or cutting inside to pick apart teams with numerical mismatches as shown above.

Desire and team spirit

The key ingredient to any Warnock team is a will to win and a desire to be better.

Throughout his career, his sides have been typified as a group of players who as a whole are greater than the sum of their parts.

Through his man-management and simplistic thinking, he has a way of squeezing every last drop of potential out of a group of previously unheralded players.

When Warnock took charge of the Bluebirds, they were second bottom in the Championship - having won just two games from their first 11 under Paul Trollope.

Nineteen months later, they are in the Premier League.

As Warnock said himself earlier in the season: "I’m not a great believer in clipboards and some of that other stuff.

"I want to know who will put a head in, who will throw their body on the line to block a shot in the 92nd minute to win a game for Cardiff City. Those are the basics that matter to me."

Sure, the 'Warnock Way' on a tactical front was fluid and effective enough to get Cardiff out of relegation trouble and into the promotion mix in just over a season.

But as important as Xs and Os are on a tactics board, the team spirit that Warnock describes as "the basics" is why they will be playing top-flight football next season.

"We pride ourselves on the attitude of 'if you want to go for 92 minutes, we'll go for 93... if you want to go for 96, we'll for for 97' and the players have to be ready for that," explains Blackwell.

"The players were given fitness programmes over the summer and have to hit a certain level in training every day. The lads are so professional these days."

No team picked up more points in the last 10 minutes of matches than Warnock's Cardiff - salvaging 14 points. Late goals turned many a defeat into a unlikely draw - and many a draw into a vital victory.

No goal was as late — and crucial — as Anthony Pilkington's 97th minute leveller against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.

If you break the goal down to arrows and diagrams, it's route one desperation at its finest - with the graphic below looking more like a frantic game of pinball.

Aesthetically, that is all there is to it. Flood the opposition half and hope for the best.

But it comes down to that ethic, desire and will to win that Warnock demands from his team. Those intangibles are what allows a team to produce these moments over and over again.

Any team can hit in hope and pray for a goal. But Warnock's core values, best represented by how often Cardiff players are willing to berate each other for the smallest of errors, ensures that they have more than blind hope when these moments arise.

There are plenty more facets that make up the Warnock Way — or at least the Cardiff City iteration.

It has its detractors, no doubt, but it delivered in the Championship and then some.

The Premier League will be different. The odds are stacked heavily against them.